Continuous press.



S. J, VERNSTEN.

commuous PRESS.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 25, 1912.

1,032,167, Patented July 9, 1912.

COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH 60.. WASHINGTON, n. C.

rare

SWAN J. VERNSTEN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

CONTINUOUS PRESS.

Application filed January 25, 1912.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, SWAN J. VERNsTnN, acitizen of the United States, and a resident of Chicago, in the countyof Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Continuous Presses, of which the following is a full,clear, and exact specification.

My invention is concerned with presses for expressing the liquid fromsolids, and is designed more especially to be applied to continuouspresses of the type shown in my Patent No. 921,921, dated May 18, 1909.

In carrying out my invention, as shown in the aforesaid patent, I foundthat with the construction of the perforated belt therein shown, withsome kinds of material, such, for instance, as sugar beets, some of thejuice squeezed from the pulp and supposed to fiow through the belt andinto the lower drums, and to escape therefrom at the bottom of the drumsso as not to fall back into the squeezed pulp, in fact, flowed backthrough the perforations in the drums and belts as soon as the pressurewas released, and as a consequence was discharged into the pulpco-nveyer trough, instead of into the troughs or conveyers for thejuice. To remedy this diflicult-y, I have made two improvements whichmay be embodied in presses of the type shown in my prior patent: In thefirst place, I place the apertures, heretofore radially directed, in thecurved surfaces of the drums at such an angle to their former directionthat the juice tends to flow through them into the drums by gravity atthe place where the pressure is the greatest, and so that gravity willnot tend to cause the juice to flow out again until the surface of thedrum through which the flow can take place has moved from over the pulpconveyer trough at least to a point where it is over the juice conveyingtrough or receptacle, so that the action of gravity insures the juicebeing properly separated from the pulp, instead of being discharged backinto it after having been squeezed out of it. In the second place, forthe simple, finely perforated screen covering the belt sections toprevent the pulp from passing through the belts into the drums, or eveninto the belts, I substitute a screen of a peculiar construction thatpermits sufficient of the pulp to enter into the outer face of the belts(but not to pass through them) so Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Julyt), 1912.

Serial No. 673,397.

that said pulp which passes into the face of the belts acts somewhatlike a screen cloth to prevent the juice from falling back through it bygravity, while notofiering any serious obstacle to its flowinoforwardthrough the pulp and into the di ums when the squeezing pressure isapplied.

To illustrate my invention, I annex hereto a sheet of drawings, in whichthe same reference characters are used to designate identical parts inall the figures, of which,

Figure 1 is a side elevation of the lower half of a press embodying myinvention, and corresponding to Fig. 1 of my aforesaid Patent No.921,921; Fig. 2 is a side elevation of one end of one of the beltsections, with the various layers making up the screen broken away tomore clearly show the construction; Fig. 3 is a sectional view, say onthe line AA of Fig. 2; Fig. 4: is a sectional view through the screens,on a lar er scale; Fig. 5 is a plan view of the portion of the screenplate having the large perforations; Fig. 6 is a similar view of thescreen plate having the small perforations; and Fig. 7is a similar viewof the spacing member or wire mesh interposed between the screen platesshown in Figs. 5 and 6.

In presses of' this type, a pair of horizontal rollers (not shown) atthe top of the press are spaced apart a greater distance than the pairof hollow rollers or drums 53 and 53, seen at the bottom of Fig. 1, andthese drums are driven in any suitable manner, as by the worm 17 shown,meshing with the worm 18 secured on the shaft 20 of the drum 58.Cooperating with these rollers and drums are a pair of belts made up ofsections 58, the complete belts moving in the paths indicated by thedotted lines 58 and 58, these belts gradually converging so that thespace between them is gradually reduced so that solids fed between thebelts will have the liquids therein expressed, the pressure increasinguntil the solids reach the level of the shafts 20 and 21, at which pointthe pressure is the greatest. The liquid expressed from the solids flowsthrough the belts and through the apertures 68 into the interior of thedrums, which'drums carry the liquids to the bottoms thereof, where thebulk of its flows out through the openings 69 in one end of the drumsand out through the opening 70 in the framework 12, which opening will,of course, be provided with a spout to carry the liquid wherever it maybe desired. The solids passing between the drums and belts have thepressure released after they pass below the horizontal level of theshafts 20 and 21 and fall into the trough 66, which is preferablyprovided with the Worm 83 to carry the solids to any desired point ofdischarge. Beneath the greater portion of each of the drums 53 and 55 isa trough or receptacle formed of the two inclined portions 80 and 81,and this trough is provided to catch whatever drippings there may befrom the drum and belt which are not properly discharged through theopenings 69 and 70.

In the construction of my prlor patent, the metal belt sections 58,which are curved to correspond to the curvature of the periphery of thedrums 53 and 53 have perforations (31 passing therethrough, and over theconvex or outer side of each section there is secured the screen 62 offinely perforated metal, as best seen in Fig. 6. The object of employingthis screen is to permit the liquid to flow freely through theperforations therein and through the apertures 61 in the belt, while notpermitting any of the solid material to pass through the belt and intothe drums. However, I have found that with some sorts of solids, andnotably beet pulp and similar materials from which the juice is to befully expressed, some of the juice, instead of remaining in the drumsuntil it can be discharged through the openings 69 and 70, almostimmediately, once the pressure is relieved, flows back through theapertures 61 and through the screen 62, and falls into the trough 66,with the result that the object of the invention is not attained, as theliquid is not fully separated from the solids. To remedy thisdifficulty, I have changed the chaarcter of the screens on the belt, andinstead of depending solely on the finely perforated screen 62, I haveadded the coarsely perforated screen 94, best shown in Fig. 5, which isspaced apart from the screen 62 some little distance by some materialthat has an openwork construction, such, for instance, as the wirescreen 95, which has the customary interwoven arrangement of the crosswires, so that the resulting screen acts to separate the screens 62 and94 for some considerable distance, while not presenting very much solidmaterial in the space thus separating the screens. These three screenmembers 62, 9a and 95 are all secured in place in the order set out, asshown inFigs. 3 and 4-, by the strips 63 overlapping the edges thereof,and secured in place by the screws 64. The action of this novel screenmechanism upon material such as beet pulp is that when the pressure isapplied, a certain amount of the pulp passes through the relativelylarge apertures in the screen 94 and into the space between the screen94: and the screen 62, which space is provided by the interposition ofthe wire mesh screen 95. Of course, the pulp cannot pass through thefine perforations in the screen 62, and as a result, when the pressureis applied, the juice passes freely through the pulp filling of thescreen, through the apertures in the drums 58 to the interior thereof,ready to be discharged through the openings 69 and 70. If the juiceattempts to flow back by gravity through the screen, the pulp offerssufficient resistance to its flow so that it will not flow out of thedrum through the screen by gravity, although, as before said, it flowsfreely through the screen, belt, and into the drum by the pressureapplied thereto.

Another feature of my invention consists in the employment of theapertures 68 in the drums 58 and 53 at substantially the angle shown,and it will at once he noted that the juice squeezed through the beltsis free at all point-s up to that of greatest pres sure to flow freelyby gravity through said perforations into the drums, and it will furtherbe evident that even after the drums have turned to-carry any particularaperture some little distance below the level of the shafts 20 and 21,its general direction is still upward, so that the liquid in the drumdoes not tend to flow by gravity out through said perforations oraperture, as is the case in the old radially arranged apertures of myaforesaid patent. It will be noted, in fact, that these perforations donot assume a horizontal position until they have passed over thedividing line between the trough 66 for the solids and the trough orcatch basin S0, 81, for the liquid. Consequently, it is practicallyimpossible for the liquids which actually enter the drums 53 and 53 tobe discharged back into the solids, and when the belts containing thenovel screen mechanism heretofore described are likewise employed it issubstantially impossible for any of the liquid once expressed to bedischarged into the trough 66, with the result that the efficiency ofthe press is vastly increased. It will also be understood that the drumswith the arrangement of the apertures shown might be employed for expressing purposes without the belts.

While I have shown and described my invention as embodied in the formwhich I at present consider best adapted to carry out its purposes, itwill be understood that it is capable of modifications, and that I donot desire to be limited in the interpretation of the following claimsexcept as may be necessitated by the state of the prior art.

hat I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the UnitedStates, is:

1. In a press, a hollow squeezing roller or drum having perforationspassing thereinto directed at an angle between a radius and a tangentand in the direction of movement of the surface of the roller.

2. In a press, the combination with a hollow squeezing roller or drumjournaled on a horizontal axis and having perforations passingthereinto, of an element having a surface with which the roller cooper.-ates to express liquid from substances passed between the roller andelement, a discharge trough to receive the expressed solids extendingbetween and beneath the roller and the surface, and a receptacle locateddirectly beneath the greater portion of the drum to receive theexpressed liquid falling therefrom, the perforations in the drum passingthereinto in such a manner that expressed liquid cannot flow backtherethrough and fall from the drum into the trough for the solids, butmust wait until it is over the receptacle for the liquid.

3. In a press, the combination with a hollow squeezing roller or drumournaled on a horizontal axis and having perforations passing thereinto,of an element having a surface with which the roller cooperates toexpress liquid from substances passed be tween the roller and element, adischarge trough to receive the expressed solids extending between andbeneath the roller and the surface, and a receptacle located directlybeneath the greater portion of the drum to receive the expressed liquidfalling therefrom, the perforations in the drum being directed at anangle between a radius and a tangent and in the direction of movement ofthe surface of the drum so that expressed juice cannot flow backtherethrough and fall from the drum into the trough for the solids butmust wait until it is over the receptacle for the liquids.

4. In a press, an expressing member through which the liquids expressedpass, consisting of a body portion provided with large perforations, afine-mesh screen secured next to said body portion, a coarsermesh screensecured outside of the fine-mesh screen, and an openwork spacing memberbetween the two screens, for the purpose described.

5. In a press, an expressing member through which the liquids expressedpass, consisting of a body portion provided with large perforations, afine-mesh screen secured next to said body portion, a coarsermesh screensecured outside of the fine-mesh screen, and a coarse-wire screen actingas a spacing member between the two screens, for the purpose described.

6. In a press of the class described, the combination with an expressingbelt made up of a plurality of bars hinged together at their sides, andeach consisting of a body portion provided with large perforations, afine-mesh screen secured next to said body portion, a coarser-meshscreen secured out* side the fine-mesh screen, and an openwork spacingmember between the two screens, of a liquid-receiving drum about whichthe belt passes and having the perforations passing thereinto throughwhich the expressed liquid passes, and an expressing element with whichthe screened face of the belt cooperates.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal,this fifteenth day of January, A. D. 1912.

SWAN J. VERNSTEN.

Witnesses JOHN HOWARD MoELRoY, MILDRED ELsNnR.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G.

